From the book, ‘Whole Bible Prophecy’
Complicating our interpretation of prophecy is the fact that some of it seems to keep happening in various ways over and over. Empires rise and conquer other empires, then dominate for a while only to fall back into the dustbin of history. Dictators come into power and behave exactly like their predecessors; so much that we can’t tell one from another without name tags. Hitler was not the first to try and wipe out the Jewish people. He was only the latest in a long string of murderers used by the deceiver who have tried to sidetrack God’s plans.
When Nebuchadnezzar got his dream interpreted by Daniel (chapter 2) he found out that his kingdom was only the head and was not going to last as long as he was thinking. In response he had an image made entirely of gold (Daniel 3) as if to say, “I repudiate the dream and my kingdom will last forever.” What a bummer for him that it only lasted a few years after his death. God was right and ol’ Nebby was wrong.
Prophecy has a cyclical nature because people keep repeating the same mistakes, and the deceiver keeps trying the same plans over and over (and so do individual unbelievers). People forget history and forget God and keep trying the same stupid plans time and again. The deceiver keeps jumping the gun trying to build his own world empire, and God smacks him down to make him get back into line.
The deceiver also has to start fresh all the time because he just can’t get his human puppets to live long enough. His kingdom is based on selfishness and greed among other weaknesses and his followers keep trying to knock each other off too. Truly the deceiver’s kingdom is divided against itself and cannot stand (Matthew 12:25-26). God keeps short-circuiting the deceiver’s plans because He has His own plan. A few paltry efforts by also-rans aren’t going to get in His way. The only reason the Beast has any kind of success at the end is because God allows the deceiver to do what he wants. Finally. For a while, anyway.